


Curiosity Killed the Cockroach

by PorgMan



Category: Bug Fables (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Original Character(s), Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-15
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-12 13:35:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28761162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PorgMan/pseuds/PorgMan
Summary: MAJOR SPOILERS FOR BUG FABLES:A Roach from the Giant's Lair named Rick starts to become very curious about Dead Lander Omega. This healthy curiosity swiftly deteriorates into an unhealthy obsession as Rick tries to "prove" his place as something more than vermin to the massive Dead Lander.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 13





	1. The Beginnings of an Obsession

He was restless. Nothing uncommon for the Roaches, living with the constant threat of Dead Lander attacks made it impossible for Rick to ever truly rest. This restlessness wasnt the common variety however, as it was caused by the faint creaking of the wooden floorboards that made up the floor of the Giant's Lair. 

It was The Watcher, a gigantic Dead Lander who's simple existence was an enigma. Despite its constant presence in his and the other roaches lives, they could still never get used to such a beast existing not too far from their home. While the sound of its movement wasnt uncommon, it moving at the current time was. Usually around this time, the Watcher would move to another section of the Lair, the reason why was unknown, but it still usually stuck to a similar schedule. Rick tried as hard as he could to just ignore it, he knew that getting out of bed would just waste the small amount of time he had to rest, and that he couldnt really solve the issue. Despite him knowing this, he was still curious as to why the behemoth sized Dead Lander was moving about during this time. After a few minutes of hesitation, he gave into his own curiosity.

He cautiously peeked outside of his tent, trying to see if anybody else had given into their curiosity as well, but the village was devoid of any other restless roaches. Rick quietly made his way to the edge of the ledge that the village was built on and looked out into the massive chasm below him, quickly seeing The Watcher. Even though it wasnt looking even remotely towards the village, an immediate feeling of dread made it's way into his mind, the everpresent feeling that accompanies catching sight of it. 

The monster was likely looking for roaches to torment, and a simple thought came to Rick. "Why does it look for roaches anyways?" This wasn't any new question, a day wouldn't go by without these words popping into his mind. But there was a difference between asking a question and trying to find out the answer. Usually there would be distractions to keep the thought at bay, but it was quiet and he was alone with his thoughts for once. He finally let himself humor the question.

While he still had much hate for the smaller Dead Landers, he knew they at least had a reason for their kills, it was for food. Dead Landers were living things after all, they needed to do it for their own survival, but the Watcher surely wasnt doing it for this reason. Nobody had ever seen it eat a Roach after it had killed. It would just kill and then move on. It never stayed consistent with its method, every few years it would change up its main strategy for taking them out. Crushing with its hands, crushing with Giant artifacts, dropping from great heights, throwing far distances, dropping into the chasms that litter the floor of the Lair, and the most recent one, dropping the clawed Dead Landers onto the Roaches and watching it finish them off.

"It enjoys watching us suffer.", Rick muttered to himself, repeating what he already had known for years. It enjoyed watching their deaths. What if the Watcher couldnt even understand death? It had existed since Roaches first entered the Lair, and tales of a giant monster had existed with their ancestors when they used to live outside. Its immortal so it doesnt need to worry about death, and might not even understand it. The everlasting Dead Lander, kind of like the Sapling. An immediate wave of shame washed through Rick's body. Comparing the dead lander Watcher to the Sacred Sapling? The Sapling was the source of all the good in the world, and he was comparing it to the endless evil? Rick could barely even call himself a roach.

"What are you doing awake Rick?"

Rick quickly got into a fight or flight mindset, but it only lasted a second or two before he just realised that it was the Elder.

"Oh, you startled me! Sorry, I couldn't sleep."

"And monitoring the Watcher is going to help you sleep?"

"Well no, the sound of it moving had woken me up, I came out to see what it was doing and I guess I just-"

"You were just curious, right? Curious about why its here and why it does what it does?"

"U-um, yeah, that's right."

"There isnt a single Roach who hasn't been curious about it. All of us have pondered about why its here, but few have been unfortunate enough to fall into the dangerous depths of curiosity."

"Dangerous?"

"Of course, curiosity is dangerous. It leads to much pain, even if the motive is to learn. Curiosity is what leads children to wander into the sapling plains to see the sapling, curiosity of the outside is what leaves fools to abandon our duty to protect The Sapling, and curiosity is even the thing that fuels the Watcher itself. It harms us because it wonders what we'll do. Nothing good comes from curiosity."

"You... You're right. It just pains me that we don't know why it's like this or why its-"

"You're overthinking it Rick. You're trying to apply logic to a being devoid of it. Its here because it is. It hurts us because it wants to know what we'll do. Trying to 'solve' a puzzle without a solution just leads to pain. Please, just get some rest."

"I... I'm sorry that I've kept you awake."

"Its alright, having somebody to talk with helps keep your mind occupied."

And then Rick quickly went back to his tent & fell into a light rest.


	2. Scavenging

The time that Rick had dreaded had arrived. The cycle of the tribe had once again looped back to him, it was his turn to scavenge for food. He had to leave the safety of the tribe and get close to Dead Landers, who wouldn’t hesitate to make quick work of him. Even after Rick had grabbed his crystal tipped weapon and began his descent down the frozen monument created by the giants, he still wasn’t mentally prepared.

“I just need to turn my mind off.” he thought to himself.

Fear is the true killer when living with Dead Landers. Even if your body could outrun them, the fear of Dead Landers holds all the roaches back and is ultimately the cause of death. Rick cleared his mind, he needed to act based on instinct rather than thought. Just like his pre-day of reckoning ancestors had lived like. If you see food, grab it. If you see a Dead Lander, run. Rick was about to get into the proper mindset, but was interrupted by…

“We wouldn’t need to put ourselves in danger like this if we were to cultivate crops. Plant them near the village and we could stay there with as much food as we would need. The monolith could even be used to preserve them for long periods of time.”

Of course, Roaches weren’t sent out alone when scavenging, there were always sent out in pairs to increase the likelihood of food being delivered. Rick was partnered with Roy, a well meaning roach, although too optimistic for his own good.

“You understand what I mean, right Rick?”

“The land isn’t fertile enough to support large scale farming though. I feel like all the land near the village is already too poor to support the kinds of leaves we eat. Why do you think we need to go to the other sectors of the lair to find leaves in the first place?”

"Then couldn't we take more fertile soil from elsewhere in the lair?"

Rick couldn’t bother himself to come up with a response, they had already made it out of the monolith and they needed to focus. They made their way past the massive crystal beside the monolith and started heading towards the neighboring sector of the lair. While they ate leaves found growing naturally in the lair, most species of plant that grew there weren’t edible. Even if they weren’t useful as food, they were useful for camouflage. They scurried from plant to plant to reduce the chance of being caught by any Dead Landers. It wasn’t long until they reached one of the walls that divided the Lair into sectors. It was likely that the “sectors” the lair was divided into were probably different rooms of the building. Although the purposes of all the rooms was unknown, they knew the overall count of the sectors. There were 8 sectors in total. The sector closest to their home sector was given the nickname “The Hissing Overhang”. They made their way to the right, knowing that a path to the neighboring sector was close. 

They reached the massive "doorway" that allowed passage between the sectors, it was similar in size to the frozen monolith next to the village. Both the passageway and the monolith’s size were probably made to accommodate the massive size of the giants. To believe that beings that huge used to exist, the only thing even close to that size is-

“Do you see any leaves?”, Rick asked Roy, trying to interrupt his own thoughts.

“I doubt we'll find anything in this sector. We've likely cleared everything out from constant scavenging over the years.”

They walked into the sector and quickly knew they needed cover. The seemingly obvious choice would be the overhangs that the Sector was named after, but previous experience with scavenging made any experienced roach very aware that it was false camouflage. The overhangs resembled chairs, although much softer and much proportionally longer. The overhangs also didn’t have much space underneath the “seats”. Earlier scavenger roaches thought this would be a good place to hide from Dead Landers, but after many trips to the Hissing Overhang it was made well known that a certain kind of Dead Lander used the overhangs as their home. The 3 kinds of Dead Landers that lived within the roach’s home sector weren’t the only kinds that existed in the lair as a whole. Each sector is said to have its own kinds, which employ their own hunting strategies. The ones that lived under the overhangs were called Snappers. They dug into the ceiling of the overhang and hid their presence from any bugs that would come nearby. If any roaches were standing under where the snappers were hiding, then it would jump out from the ceiling and… snap. 

"We skirt around the edge of the overhangs, obviously don't go under but stay close to it. Other Dead Landers usually stay away from here too." advised Rick.  
While Dead Landers would rarely ever attack each other without good reason, the Snappers never got a good look at what was underneath them before they snapped, leading to a Snapper killing another fellow Dead Lander. The only other time they would ever attack each other is because of a major food shortage. 

Rick & Roy made their way along the edge of the overhang, making sure that they stayed quiet to avoid being sighted by the multiple kinds of Dead Landers that lived in the sector. After passing by the overhang, they looked from afar at most of the sector for any leaves they could bring to the village.

“I guess you were right about there being none left…" said Rick.  
“We should head to the hallway sector, it leads to multiple others that haven’t been fully cleared out yet.”

They walked along the wall that led to the hallway sector and looked through the doorway. With 5 other sectors connecting to it, Rick & Roy needed to discuss which sector would be the most effective to search for food.


	3. The Aquatic Basin

“The Aquatic Basin is the obvious choice.” Roy exclaimed gleefully.

“Why particularly that one? Don’t tons of Roaches scavenge there, if we continue going there we’ll eventually deplete the flora as well.”

“After a while that'll happen, but the abundance of water there makes good plants very plentiful. Even after lots of scavenging, there's still tons of plants scattered around. ”

“If you’re that certain, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to scavenge there.”

Roy & Rick hugged the wall as they made their way to the Aquatic Basin sector, avoiding any of the hallway’s native Dead Landers. As they were about to enter.

“The entranceway is closed.” stated Rick.

“Huh, I guess it is. The Watcher must have been here recently.”

After hearing the name of the Watcher, Rick felt an immediate panic. He wasn’t sure why, did it have something to do with him watching it the other night?

“It doesn’t really matter too much though, we can just crawl under the door.” continued Roy.

“But, what if it's in there?” 

“If it's in there, we’ll see it before it sees us. The plants are a good cover.”

Why was he so scared? Scavenging always had a tinge of fear to it, but Rick was more scared than usual. He was lucky that he was partnered with Roy though, he was good at relieving tension.

The two roaches crawled under the door and found their way into the flora filled Aquatic Basin. Plants covered a large part of the sector, making it look like a jungle. While the plants here were good for potentially avoiding the Watcher, they weren’t as effective for smaller Dead Landers. The ridiculous amount of flora had covered the entire sector, meaning anything that lived here also had to travel through it as well. While better than being in the open, they still needed to be very cautious. Both roaches carefully looked around for any edible leaves, but the amount of inedible plants made the search difficult.

“It would be better if we went closer to the lake near the basin, the water is good for nutrient filled leaves.” advised Roy.

The journey to the lake took a while, but it was mostly uneventful. Roy’s knowledge of the area was very useful in avoiding the native Dead Landers. The sight of water was a very good sign, and Rick was rather stunned. He had never been this far into the Aquatic Basin before, and the lake was a very different sight compared to what he was used to seeing. The water in the lake was from a crack in the walls of the Basin which had flown into a hole in the Lair’s floor.

“So it never runs out of water?”

“Mhm. Up above the basin there’s a giant waterfall that always has water flowing out.”

"So that water just flows eternally? I guess it makes sense that this place has so many plants growing around."

"After my first trip here, I became fascinated. As long as the right conditions are met, flora can grow in abundance basically anywhere. It's the main reason I want to grow crops near the village."

While he had enjoyed the conversation with Roy, they still had yet to get food for the village. Rick started to walk around the edge of the lake, and quickly caught sight of leaves that marked the end of the search. He quickened his pace, eager to begin the journey back to the safety of the village.

“Rick! Watch out!”

His lesser instincts kicked in. He quickly jumped aside right before he was smashed from above. At first he thought it was the Watcher, but when he got his bearings straight he realized it was just a type of Dead Lander unique to this sector. A very tall thin creature that disguised itself as a tall blade of grass, it hid among the flora it was imitating and likely got his prey by grabbing them when they had their guard down. 

Rick ran his way over to Roy, still in the mindset that he had to fight.

“It can’t move from that spot, it traded away its maneuverability for its massive size. As long as we stay away from that area we’ll probably be fine.” explained Roy in an emotionless tone.

Both roaches had entirely switched to their lesser instincts, their minds temporarily shut off their conscious minds so that their instincts could keep them alive. However, it wasn’t long until Roy was back to his usual tone.

“Y-you’re okay right? It didn’t hit you or anything?”

“Y-yeah. I’m fine. If you hadn’t yelled out it might have though…”

“...”

“I just wasn't paying enough attention. I had caught sight of some leaves over there.”

“We should get them as soon as possible. Staying here much longer isn't wise...”

“Yeah, me neither.”

Making sure to carefully watch their surroundings, they made their way to the leaves and grabbed as many as they could carry. While they were glad they had got what they had set out for, they knew that only half of the journey had been completed. They needed to make their way back to the village before they could celebrate. 

They started their journey back, Rick was carrying most of the food so Roy could better keep an eye out for any dangers they could potentially encounter. Being more cautious after their encounter with the camouflaged Dead Lander, they made their way back to the hallway sector without incident. As they scurried back to the hissing cliffs at a quick pace, eager to get home, they heard a loud noise from behind them. One of the doors back in the hallway sector was opening, it was immediately made very clear to both roaches what was happening. 

The door opened and a jet black figure emerged. Its size was mind-numbing and its tendencies sadistic. It was The Watcher.

**Author's Note:**

> I finally got the motivation to start writing something, hopefully it continues into further chapters.
> 
> First thing I should note is that "The Watcher" being referred to in the story IS Dead Lander Omega. The roaches obviously wouldn't refer to Dead Landers by their explorer's association placeholder names, so calling it omega would be odd. Now, as for why the name I chose is shared with a boss from the game, that will be explained in later chapters.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed it so far!


End file.
